Cookie & Cream Slice

Did this recipe per my gal's request, its really easy to do and no baking required. Recipe from October'13 Women Weekly magazine. I only did half recipe in a 7 inch sq ring.

Ingredients:

250g packet chocolate ripple biscuits, break(use any sweet biscuits, if unavailable) - I use 150 oreo cookies with its cream
100g unsalted butter, soften - I use 50 g of melted butter
2x250g cream cheese, soften and chop - I use 250g cream cheese
400ml thickened cream plus 200 ml extra for deco - I use 200ml dairy cream plus 100ml extra
1/2 cup caster sugar - I use 1/4 cup
3tsp powder gelatine - I use 1 1/2 tsp
1/4 cup just boiled water - I use half of 1/4 cup boiling water
150g packet Oreo biscuits, chop- I use 9 pcs of oreo sanwiched cookies
100g white chocolate, grate
mini oreos, to decorate

Method
1. Line base and slice of a 20x30cm slice pan with baking paper, extending paper 2cm above edge.

2. Place biscuit in a processor and process to form fine crumbs. Add butter and pluse to combine. Press mixture firmly onto base of pan. Chill for 30min.

3. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese, cream and sugar together using electric mixer, until smooth.

4. Sprinkle gelatine over just boiled water, whisking vigorously with a fork to dissolve. Beat into cream mixture. Fold chopped Oreos and chocolate through.

5. Spoon mixture onto base and smoothen the surface. Cover and chill overnite. Cute into slices.

6. Whip extra thickened cream. Serve each slice topped with a dollop of cream and 2 mini oreos.

Trenyce's Birthday Cake

Decided to make a cake for Trenyce birthday celebration last weekend. After google thru the web for ideas, thought that castle cake is easy to manage. As the sponge cake is not that dense to hold 2 layers of sponge cake on 2nd deck, I remove 1 slice and just make a shorter 2nd deck for this cake. Maybe I didn't stress myself to deliver a perfect cake, it turns out acceptable. Most important the kids are happy with the cake :)

Blueberry Muffins

The kids requested for some afternoon snacks, as I was busy with housework and was left with little time to bake something for their tea, quick browse through my books and saw this recipe, so made 2 recipes of it, one batch of muffins were added with blueberry while the other batch I added in some chocolate crunchy pearls(was lazy to chop the chocolate bar into chips) per the kids' request. This recipe was adapted from the book Okashi by Keiko Ishida, although I didn't do the topping still its nice just eat on its own.

 



Ingredients (make 6 muffins)

120g Pastry flour

1tsp Baking powder

100g Fresh blueberries ( I use frozen ones)

50g Unsalted butter, softened

40g brown sugar

30g caster sugar (I use 25g)

1 Egg, about 65g

60g cold fresh whole milk

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 deg C. Sift flour and baking powder twice(I only did once). Set aside 18 blueberries.

2. Beat butter with and electric handheld mixer until soft and creamy. Add both sugar and beat until mixture is light and fluffy. Add egg and beat until well-combined.

3. Add one-third flour and fold in with a spatula. Add half of milk and continue to fold batter gently. Add another one third of flour and fold in, followed by the remaining milk. Add remainging flour and fold through, but do not over-mix. Add remaining blueberries and fold in gently.

4. Spoon batter into cases until three-quarter full. Divide the 18 blueberries among each muffin (3 for each). Bake for about 25-30min or until muffin have a springy texture when pressed gently.

5. Leave muffins to cool on a wire rack. They are best served warm, and consumed the day they are baked or the day after. If not consuming immediately, store in and airtight container and refrigerate for up to 4 days, freeze for up to 2 weeks.

Pineapple tarts'13

This year I cooked my own pineapple jam or my tarts. Bought 8 pineapples to made the jam and endup with  
lots of left over pineapple jam, made two portions of the pastry for my sisters and my own family. The left over jam will do closed tarts to finish it. I prefer salty to sweet pastry to balance the jam sweet sour taste, so I do not add sugar to the pastry.

Pastry:
250g butter
365g plain flour } sifted together
20g corn flour   }
2 egg yolks
a pinch of salt
egg wash


Method:
1. Cut butter into smaller pieces, rub butter to the sifted plain flour and corn flour and salt mixture until it become like bread crumb.
2. Add in egg yolks and let the flour mixture combine and become a dough. Do not over knead the dough.
Chill the dough for 30min.
3. Roll the dough between two sheets of plastic. Sprinkle a little flour on the surface of the dough, cut out the shape of the tart with cookie cutter. Shape the jam into a ball and place on top of the pastry. Brush the tarts with some egg wash.
4. Bake at 160deg C for 25min. Remove from oven and cool. Store in container when tarts are fully cooled.

Kuih Bangkit

I have a little bit more time this year to make cookies for Chinese New Year, I picked kuih bangkit as one of them. I did two portions of Ms Valarie Kong's recipe that I learned couple of years back and also did one recipe from Alan Ooi's cookie book.

Valarie's Kuih Bangkit

Alan Ooi Kuih Bangkit

Below is the recipe for Alan Ooi's Kuih Bangkit from the book 'New Year Cookies published by y3k"..

Ingredients:

3 egg yolks

120g icing sugar

150g concentrated cocconut milk

400g tapioca flour (stir fry in a wok over very low heat till flour become light, sieve and leave it to cool and store for at least 2-3 days)

Method:

1. Beat the egg yolk and icing sugar with a hand-held electric mixer till consistency is thick and creamy. Add in coconut milk and mix well. Lastly, stir in cooled tapioca flour and knead dough thoroughly by hand till dough is white and has a light-textured touch.

2. Roll out dough between two pieces of plastic sheet. Use cookie cutter and cut out the desire shapes. Place them on lined baking trays. Baked in a preheated oven at 170degC for 15-20min. Cookies should be white and not browned. Cool them.

Tips: (extracted from the book)

1.Tapioca flour must be well fried so it becomes light. The cooling process will enable the flour to absorb in the coconut milk so dough will be soft.

2. Dough must be well kneaded to produce light cookies that can melt-in-the-mouth.

3. Always keep dough covered with a piece of clean kitchen towel to prevent drying out.

4. Its also useful to keep some extra coconut milk aside. Sprinkle a little onto dought when texture is very dry. Knead well to smoothen it.

Cotton Cheesecake

My friend S recommended this recipe to me which she found on a baking site. She said the cake is yummy and not difficult to do. I tried and indeed it easy to do, the surface didn't sink like other cheesecake recipes.

A. 250g cream cheese

200 ml whipping cream or milk

120g butter

B. 5 egg yolks

60g flour

20g corn starch

C. 5 egg white

120g  caster sugar

1/4 tsp cream of tartar


Instructions:

1. Preheat oven at 150 deg C.

2. Double boil ingredients in A till melted. Add egg yolks and beat till well mix. Mix flour and cornstarch then add to egg yolk mixture. Mix well.

3. Beat C till stiff then add to egg yolk flour mixture, lightly fold till well combined.

4. Place a sheet of pachment paper at the base of 8 inch cake tin. Pour mixture into tin. Wrap a piece of foil at the bottom of tin to avoid water from sip into tin while baking. Steam bake for 50min.

Fried slice pork with crispy ginger

Am rather busy lately, didn't have time to do posting here. This dish was done sometime ago, got the recipe was from Yum Yum website, not bad, I didn't add the seed of the chilli so that its not spicy and the kids can eat it.

Ingredients :

1 cup oil for deep-frying

100g shredded ginger

500g pork belly, sliced

1 tsp chopped garlic

1 onion, peeled and cut into chunks

1 red chilli, seeded and cut into pieces

1 green chilli, seeded and cut into pieces

Seasoning :

2 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp light soya sauce

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp water

1 tsp dark soya sauce

Method:

1. Heat up oil for deep-frying and deep-fry shredded ginger until aromatic and crispy. Dish and drain.

2. Blanch pork belly in boiling water until cooked. Dish and drain.

3. Heat up 2 tbsp oil, saute chopped garlic, onion and chilli until aromatic.

4. Add pork belly and seasoning, stir-fry over high heat until dry.

5. Lastly add in shredded ginger and stir well. Dish up and serve.

Kuih Salat

My friend S has done this kuih many times, she said its always popular. For some reason or another I didn't try till last friday. And she gave me many guidence on making the kuih, and indeed to all who ate it likes it. This is my first attempt on this kuih, am very happy with the result. Thanks S.

Recipe from Florence blog...

Pandan Chiffon Cake

My friend S recommended this cake from Wen's Delight Blog , told me to try it out said its a good .The first attempt I failed probably because the liquid was too warm and I stir in the flour too soon, the mixture end up too thick and heavy and it didn't rise alot after baked. I told my friend and she said since I have ingredients at home why not redo it.The next morning I tried again and I succeed, the cake was very fragrant and soft, the recipe is definitely worth to keep. Thanks S for the encouragement.

Cheese and Lemon Chiffon Cake

Made a chiffon cake with the chiffon cake tin bought in Tokyo when touring there last year. I like the brown crust from this cake tin compare to my other chiffon cake tins ...Recipe adapt from 福田淳子 - chiffon cake book.

Ingredients

160cream cheese

130g caster sugar

5 egg yolk (I use appx. 55g egg without shell)

25ml salad oil ( I use corn oil)

25ml lemon juice

70ml milk

2/3 tsp lemon zest (I use zest of 1 whole lemon)

130g cake flour

2/3 tsp baking powder

8 egg white   (as my eggs are larger so I only 7 egg whites)

(I added 1/4 tsp cream of tartar)

20 cm chiffon tin

Bake 180 deg C 40min for 20cm tin 

Note:

- let cream cheese rest at room temp till it turn soft.

-Sift both cake flour and baking powder together.

-Preheat oven.

Method:

1. Mix cream cheese and 1/3 portion of the sugar in a bowl, use a whisk and mix till well combine.

2. Add egg yolk one at a time and mix till well combine, add oil, lemon juice, milk and lemon zest and mix till well combined.

3. Add sifted flour mixture, use whisk and fold till a smooth batter.

4. Beat egg white, cream of tartar and balance sugar with electric mixer till soft peak.

5. Add 1/3 portion of egg white to egg batter (step 3), fold till combine, add the egg yolk batter and fold till well combined.

6. Pour batter into chiffon cake tin, bake for 40min, test with skewer to ensure cake is well baked (for my oven I baked for 50min). Remove cake from oven, invert cake and let it cool. Remove cake from tin, slice and serve.

Steamed Glutinous Rice in Lotus Leaf

This is one of Trenyce favourite dish among the dim sum dishes. Saw this recipe in Simply Her magazine(april issue) in a Saturday morning, looks easy, and tried made some with some little changes to make it taste better. Trenyce ate the first one when the first batch came out from steaming and she like it. :) But I think there still room for improvement..^-^

Ingredients
500g glutinous rice
1tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp chicken stock powder
400ml chicken broth (I use 400ml water mix with one tbsp concentrate abolone stock)
2 tbsp shallot oil
2tbsp vegetable oil
300g chicken thigh, deboned and diced (I use chicken breast because I bought the wrong meat :( )
10 dried chinese mushrooms, soake a few hours and drained, with stems removed and diced
50g dried shrimps, soaked for 15min
100g prawns, peeled, deveined and diced (I omitted this)
100g ham, diced (I omitted this)
4 dried scallops, soaked for 15min --steam for 10min (I steamed it to soften it abit)
4 dried lotus leaves, soaked for and hour and patted dry--available in chinese medical hall here
4 cooked egg yolks (forgot to buy so I omitted it)

Original recipe doesn't have the seasoning part...
Seasoning (I added the seasoning to improve the flavour of the meat, mushrooms etc)
dash of pepper
dash of salt
1 tsp cornflour

1tbsp oyster sauce
1tsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp water


Method:
1. Soak the glutionous rice in hot water for 1 hour. Drain. (I soaked in tapid water for several hours)
2. Steam the soaked glutinous rice for 45min over medium heat.
3. Marinate the chicken meat with pepper, salt and cornflour.
4. Mix the sugar, salt, chicken stock powder, chicken broth and shallot oil evenly into the steamed rice. Set aside.
5. Heat the vegetable oil in a hot pan. Stir-fry the chicken meat, mushrooms, dried shrimps, prawn, ham,  oyster sauce, dark soy sauce and water for 3min over medium flame. Dish and set aside
6. Cut the lotus leaf into half, take a fistful of rice and place it in the centre of a lotus leaf. Pat it down. Place a dried scallop and a salted egg yolk in the middle of the rice.
7.Place 2 tbsp of the cooled chicken mixture onto rice. Top with another fistful of rice.
8. Fold the side of the lotus leaf towards the centre. Roll and tuck the ends into the fold. (I just roll and make sure the loose end was press against the plate and dont come off during steaming)
9. Steam for 8min over medium heat. (I steamed 15min to make the rice softer)

Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins

Have not made muffins for a long while, wanted to use up the frozen blueberries in the freezer, bought a pack of buttermilk and made a batch of muffins...

Recipe from book Muffin Galore

Makes 12

Ingredients:

150g fresh or frozen blueberries
25g icing sugar
300g plain flour              } I use 300g self raising flour
2 tsp baking powder      }
pinch of salt
150g soft brown sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
225 ml buttermilk
2 tbsp milk
50g butter, melted
finely grated zest of half orange

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 200 deg C/ 400 deg F/ Gas mark 6. Grease a 12 cup muffin tin or line the cups with paper muffin cases.
2. Put the blueberries into a large bowl. Sift over the icing sugar and toss blueberries in the sugar to coat. Add the sifted flour, baking powder, salt and brown sugar, then stir together.
3. In a separate bowl or jug, mix together the egg, buttermilk, milk, melted butter and orange zest. Add the buttermilk mixture all at once to the dry ingredients and mix breifly until just combined.
4. Spoon the batter 3/4  full into the prepared muffin cups. Bake in the oven for 18-20min, or until risen and golden. Cool in the tin for 5 min, then turn out onto a wire rack. Serve warm or cold.

Tiramisu

Kenny kept mention that it had been a while since I made tiramisu, today I adapt the recipe from nigella express..I made half recipe in the morning. And its ready for dessert tonight..Kenny had 2 servings :)

Ingredients
350ml espresso coffee, made with 350ml water and 9 tsp instant espresso powder, cooled (I made 2 tbsp nescafe gold with one cup water)
250ml Bailey cream liqueur ( My Bailey cream liqueur looks weird so I use kalua instead)
400g packets Sponge finger biscuits
2 eggs
75g caster sugar
500g mascarpone cheese
2 1/2 tsp cocoa powder

Methods:
1. Mix the coffee with 175ml of the baileys in a shallow bowl.

2. Dip the biscuits into this liquid; let them soak on each side enough to become damp but not soggy. Line the bottom of a 22cm square glass dish with a layer of biscuits. (I use a smaller square corninware to do half recipe)

3.Separate the eggs, but keep only one of the whites. (I use 1 yolk and 1 white)Whisk the two yolks and the sugar together until thick and a paler yellow,then fold in the remaining 75ml of baileys, and the mascarpone to make a moussy mixture.

4.Whisk the single egg white until thick and frothy; you can do this by hand with such a little amount. Fold the egg white into the yolky mascarpone, and then spread half of this mixture on top of the layer of biscuits.

5. Repeat with another layer of soaked biscuits, and then top with the remaining mascarpone mixture.

6. Cover the dish with clingfilm and leave in the fridge overnight. When you are ready to serve, push the cocoa powder through a small tea strainer to dust the top of the tiramisu.

Fried Prawns with Garlic

The kids preferred fried prawns to steam prawns and happen to browse thru yum yum magazine and saw something that I can adapt and it was well received.

Ingredients:
800g medium prawns, trimmed
3 tbsp cornstarch
oil for deep frying
1 clove garlic, peeled and sliced


Seasoning (mixed):
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp tomato sauce
1 tsp sugar

Method:
1. Coat prawns with cornstarch and deep-fry in hot oil until well cooked and golden brown. Dish and drain.
2. Add slice garlic and deep-fry until crispy. Dish and drain. Leave aside.
3. Bring seasoning to boil. Add prawns and stir-fy until well combined. Dish up.
4. Sprinkle the fried crispy garlic on top and serve.

Closed Pineapple Tarts

My friend S came all the way to my place to pass me a pack of pineapple paste, she wanted me to try as she knows I didn't have time to cook the paste. I have put off the thinking of making pineapple tarts this year but was curious about the taste of the paste and since I have a batch of pastry left, I try it by making some close tart using airfryer. I like the paste, taste like from pineapple with some sourish taste, but my pillow tarts was abit big...LOL..will fine tune the size next time if make.

Pastry:

380g plain flour
20g corn flour
250g salted butter
1 egg

Sift flours in a bowl, rub in butter (cut into small pieces), add egg and form a dough. Chill in fridge for 20min.
Take 10g pastry form into a ball, flatten, wrap with 10g of pineapple paste (roll into ball), form into desire shape. Bake in airfryer at 160degC for 15-20 min till golden color. Remove and cool on rack.

Chi Gu Chips

Chi gu aka as chinese arrow head, its only available at this time of the year near to Chinese Lunar New Year. I'm curious about this chips as many said its nice to eat but to me the price of ready made ones selling outside are expensive, so I read thru a few blogs and the process seems rather easy to do.
I tried with half kg at first to trial the process, the thickness of the vegetable, the oil temperature etc. Then bought another 1.5kg last weekend and finish a batch with help from Kenny..

   Fresh chi gu, bigger better, easier to shred.. 

After peel off the skin, leave the top part for easy holding while shredding

Shredded pieces for chi gu waiting to deep fried over medium fire

After fried. Preferred the chips to be slightly darker than pale color as it taste better.

Chinese Peanut Cookies

Lunar New Year is around the corner, as I'm very busy every weekend so those cookie like kuih bungkit which needs abit of time to do I will skip it, went thru some blog and found that Florence's Chinese Peanut Cookies was very popular and well received so attempt double recipes of it, but I omit the coarse peanut. Its indeed melt in the mouth and nice to eat...

Pork floss Brinjal

This is one of the dishes that I tried with my new toy... Philips Airfryer. Healtier way of cooking without using much oil and at the same time taste the sweetness of the brinjal.

After cut and soak the brinjal for a while, drain and coat the brinjal with some oil, I use my hands to rub the brinjal pieces, only need 2 tbsp oil for 2 big brinjal. Then place the brinjal in preheated airfryer and let it 'fry' at 180 deg C for 15min then remove on plate, sprinkle with pork floss...its that easy..

Sweet Sour sauce Prawn

Recipe from yum yum issue 72

600g medium size prawns, trimmed and cut slit at the back
1 cup oil
1tbsp shredded ginger
1 tbsp shredded red chilli

sesoning
5tbsp plum sauce
1/2 tbsp lime juice
1tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3tbsp water

1 green mango, peeled and shredded onto a serving platter

Method:

1. Heat up oil fir deep frying, deep frying, deep fry prawn until golden brown. Dish and drain.

2. Leave 2 tbsp oil and saute shredded ginger until aromatic. Add red chilli, seasoning and bring to boil.

3. Lastly add in prawn and stir well. Dish onto the serving platter lined with shredded mango. Serve.

White chocolate & macadamia nut muffin

Made some muffins for my sis's family when they came over for dinner over the weekend.

300g self raising flour
150g caster sugar
200g white chocolate chips
100g roughly chopped, lightly toasted macadamia nuts
pinch of salt
4 tbsp butter, melted
175ml buttermilk
1 lightly beaten egg

Preheat the oven to 190deg C. Grease a large 6 cup muffin tin. (I use muffin cups)

In a medium bowl, mix the flour,sugar, chocolate chips, nuts and salt with a spoon.

In a large bowl, beat the butter, buttermilk and egg with an electric whisk. Add the flour mixture to the buttermilk mixture, stirring until just combined. Do not overmix.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin or cup. Bake for 25min. Remove tin from the oven and cool for 5 min. Then remove the muffins and cool on a rack.

Store in and airtight container for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.

Make half dozen